Junction of Newbattle Terrace and Pitsligo Road

Newbattle Terrace: Have your say on proposed road changes!

Extensive changes proposed on Newbattle Terrace and Pitsligo Road

City of Edinburgh Council’s proposed road changes on Newbattle Terrace and Pitsligo Road are already causing heated discussion among residents.

According to the CEC consultation website, the aim of the scheme is to improve the streetscape and make it a more welcoming place by:

  • Eliminating uneven surfaces and drainage problems 
  • Replacing missing street trees with suitable species
  • Introducing continuous at-level footpaths over all junctions within the scheme whereby pedestrians have priority over vehicles
  • Installing a signalised pedestrian crossing to the west of Pitsligo Road
  • Improving the area at the junction with Pitsligo Road by widening footpaths and reducing traffic by making the south part of Pitsligo Road one-way northbound (away from Newbattle Terrace) with a southbound contraflow cycle lane on the one-way section

The consultation process is open until December 24th. Here is the link to the consultation page for you to view the proposed changes and submit your comments.

Please also add your point of view on our website in the comment section below. Newbattle Terrace is within Merchiston Community Council’s area and we are keen to hear from residents.

View of Newbattle Terrace from Morningside Road end showing Dominion Cinema

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4 thoughts on “Newbattle Terrace: Have your say on proposed road changes!”

  1. Living Streets Edinburgh very much welcomed the design when we were consulted some months ago – a big improvement in the public realm, with particular benefits for the safety and convenience of walking. The one change since then has been the insertion of a contra-flow cycle lane at the south end of Pitsligo Road – while that is welcome in itself, it is not clear what impact this will have on pavement widths here. Indeed no pavement widths are shown anywhere in the design documents. The Council’s Street Design Guidance states that streets in the categories involved here should be an ‘absolute minimum’ width of 2m, and that ‘only allowed in short sections’. It would be good to have clarity on how this scheme measures up to this standard.

  2. We now understand that in the street design ‘the north footway [of Newbattle Terrace] varies from 2.25 to 3.5m, with a couple of pinch points of around 2m’ and ‘the south footway is 3.0 – 3.1m, with a pinch point of 2.9m.’ However, it is proposed that the footways on Pitsligo Road (north of the proposed continuous footway along Newbattle Terrace) are to remain at their current 1.5-1.55m width, ie less than the ‘absolute minimum’ of 2m laid down in the Council’s Street Design Guidance.

  3. Living Streets Edinburgh has submitted the following message of support (including some detailed comments) to the Council:

    ‘Living Streets Edinburgh Group very much welcomes this scheme, which will secure a big improvement in the quality of the public realm – with particular benefits for the safety and convenience of walking, in line with the latter’s place at the top of the Scottish Government’s ‘Sustainable Travel Hierarchy’.

    ‘We are surprised that footway widths are not specified, although we understand that in the new design ‘the north footway [of Newbattle Terrace] varies from 2.25 to 3.5m, with a couple of pinch points of around 2m’ and ‘the south footway is 3.0 – 3.1m, with a pinch point of 2.9m.’ This is reasonably in line with the Council’s ‘Street Design Guidance’ (SDG) which stipulates that the footway width should be an ‘absolute minimum’ width of 2m, ‘only allowed in short sections’.

    ‘The footprint of the scheme has been extended northwards up Pitsligo Road as far as the junction with Woodcroft Road, in order to accommodate a new contraflow cycle lane. The latter is welcome in itself, but should be matched by a widening of the parallel footways on this section (currently only 1.5-1.55m wide) in order to satisfy the ‘absolute minimum’ of 2m laid down in the SDG. The Convenor of the Council’s Transport & Environment Committee emphasised at the recent launch of the ‘Cut the Pavement Clutter’ project that the SDG ‘must be applied’ to all schemes, and noted the Council’s ‘wall to wall’ approach, ie not just upgrading the road carriageway, but also enhancing the parallel footways.

    ‘The creation of a continuous footway along the north side of Newbattle Terrace at the Pitsligo Road junction is very welcome, but pedestrian passage over the continuous footway should be protected by (i) road markings warning southbound (downhill) cyclists to give way to pedestrians, and (ii) tactiles at the edge of the former footway lines (to indicate to people with visual disabilities that vehicles and cycles cross this area – vehicles northbound only, and cyclists in both directions).’

    ‘We suggest that any vehicle flow displacement on to Clinton Road should be monitored, and, if necessary, further action should be taken to deal with any problems caused by displaced traffic.’

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